Checkmate
by AugustHope
Summary: In which 'A' decides that the only way to truly get revenge for what happened that night is to murder those involved. Canon up to Season 5.


" _Mr Fitz & Aria - Secret Relationship?_" the girl typed, attaching the video she'd filmed from the car park. Pressing enter, the post was uploaded to her new website, _Rosewood Gossip Girl._ A couple more clicks was all it took for the video to be sent to everyone at Rosewood High, excluding the five friends she was targeting, from an anonymous number, spreading the news around the small town. The next day, nobody would be able to take Mr Fitz seriously, and Aria Montgomery would be the focus of everyone at school.

She imagined they'd laugh, taunting her with jokes about her relationship with Mr Fitz, but there was still one flaw in her plan - Alison DiLaurentis. She acted like she was untouchable, but a lot of things had changed since she was kidnapped. Some people even said she'd made it up - that they'd overheard her tell someone that they needed to keep the story the same, or that they'd found a photo of her in New York the summer after she disappeared. Despite the name of her new blog, she refused to believe the gossip. Everything she posted had to be true, or it wouldn't hurt them. If Alison really was faking it, or she had been hiding out in New York, there had to be proof somewhere and she was determined to find it.

Alison thought she could do anything, including protecting Aria and getting this taken down. That would be difficult, since she'd enlisted Caleb Rivers to help set up the site - though he didn't know what it was for, of course. She'd lied, said it was for a study group which might be taken down for having a chat room if her parents found out, and he'd made it secure, he said.

Refreshing the page, she was glad to see the views spiralling upwards - in the few minutes it had been online, over a hundred people had seen the video, adding comments like " _ew, this is so wrong_ " and " _I never knew Aria was into older guys!_ "

Her phone buzzed, alerting her to a message from her boyfriend. "I thought we agreed to delete the video?" it read, and she hastily typed a reply.

"I'm just restoring order to the social food chain. Alison's clique need to go down. They have more secrets than this, I'm sure. You agreed with me earlier."

"How could I say no to you? See you tomorrow, A."

Outside the house, a light flickered on. Her parents would be away until the morning after - it had to be him, making her meet him by the pool.

"I know it's you, Noel," she sent, walking downstairs, and her phone buzzed with a reply almost immediately.

"And I know you're coming to meet me," it read. They'd been dating for a year now, of course she was meeting him. She slipped off her robe, revealing a pink bikini, and headed out to the jacuzzi. As she sat by the water, music playing from the outdoor speakers, another text came in.

"Heads up."

Confused, she started to reply, but something falling into the pool made her to look up. Oh god, she thought, standing up and running to the trees near the house. It's a head. Noel's head.

She ran towards the house, hands shaking as she tried to call 911. Instead, she ended up phoning Jenna, but it was better than nobody. "Jenna," she gasped. "You have to help me, there's someone here-"

The back door was locked, as were the sliding glass doors. A dark figure appeared behind her, his reflection startling her. "Help-" Her screams were silenced when he stabbed her in the back, grabbing her before dragging the knife across her throat and dropping her into the pool.

At the DiLaurentis house, five phones went off at once. Aria, Hanna, Emily and Spencer reached for them right away, but Alison left hers on the bed. "Ignore them," she said, turning back to the movie they'd been watching. "Don't let A ruin our fun."

"But if it is A, we need to read it now, Ali," Spencer pointed out. "I don't want to lose time we might need to save someone if A's taken them already."

A photo popped up on all five screens, along with the message. A, standing over the body of Alexandra Wilson, held a sharp knife, dripping with the same blood that surrounded the body.

" _Watch your backs, bitches. You might end up with a knife in yours. - A_."

AN: I hope you liked this chapter! Alexandra is the only character I've invented, and she liked to think that she ruled the school, especially since Alison left and Hanna and Mona were busy with A. Alexandra & Noel's deaths were very similar to Tyler & Nina's in MTV's Scream, but the rest of the events will be more creative. This story is set approximately halfway through Season 5, though there's no set timeline - the girls are not being framed for murder, are all friends with Alison, investigating who A is & have not been to the dollhouse. Mona was never "killed". A just decided to step up his game.


End file.
